Seattle Sounders sign homegrown forward Jordan Morris

The Seattle Sounders announced the signing of U.S. men's national team forward Jordan Morris on Thursday, putting an end to a suspenseful saga over his club decision.

Morris, 21, starred as an All-American at Stanford, with 23 goals and 16 assists in 54 career matches, and he won the Hermann Award as the nation's top player after leading the Cardinal to the national championship. A native of the Seattle area, Morris is the son of the Sounders’ team physician and chose to join the MLS club over Germany’s Werder Bremen, with whom he was on trial for 10 days in January and assisted on a goal in a club friendly.

On Tuesday, Werder Bremen announced that Morris would not be signing with the club to pursue his next step of playing in America, which indicated that Morris would join the Sounders, with whom he has had contract offers since the end of his freshman season at Stanford. The deal is the richest to a Homegrown Player in league history, something Sounders general manager Garth Lagerwey confirmed during the process in trying to sign him.

Morris became the first college player to earn a cap with the USMNT since the 1990s, scoring the go-ahead goal against Mexico in a friendly on April 15, 2015. He is seen as a rising star within the national team program and is a regular on the U-23 team, which will attempt to qualify for the Olympics through a two-game playoff against Colombia in March.